Ground Clutter - Market Drivers

Article
Apr 8, 2001

Market Drivers

By
Ralph Hood

April
2001

USA TODAY loves airline stories. The paper’s
readership includes a lot of frequent flyers, and they gobble up airline
news. For some reason, though, the paper seems to prefer disaster and
exposure stories.

Sometimes, they don’t even wait for
accidents to happen. They wonder in advance — in big print headlines
— if this or that trend means more fatalities in the future.
Well, there’s good news. Hidden away
on page three of a recent USA TODAY is a report that should make the airline
industry proud as a teenager with a new drivers’ license. In spite
of all the horror stories, airline fatalities have actually gone down
a little. The big story is that this has happened during a period when
the number of airline flights more than doubled. Any way you look at it,
that’s good news.
According to an M.I.T. professor cited in
the article, the risk of dying on a U.S. airline was one in 12 million
during the 1990s. You’ve probably got a better chance of getting
money from Ed McMahon.
Most industries exhibit a great deal of
chaos during growth periods. The airline industry has performed nothing
short of a minor miracle by improving safety during this period of unprecedented
growth.
I must, of course, point out that this took
place during the two decades after the deregulation that was, according
to the hand-wringing sob sisters, going to bring the wrath of God down
upon us and kill more people than the biblical plagues.
Congratulations, airlines. You are flying
more people more places more safely for less money. Furthermore, you have
given us a beacon to point to when liberals moan, groan, and explain that
the free market needs guvmint control.